Cover Society: Dick Rivera on Mutual Benefit

Industry veteran and NRA chair Dick Rivera says immigration reform ensures a better future for immigrants, restaurants and America.

By David Farkas, Senior Editor -- Chain Leader, 7/1/2007

The National Restaurant Association says restaurants will add 2 million jobs over the next decade, a 15 percent increase in the work force. Yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the U.S. labor force will grow just 10 percent. Without an overhaul of immigration laws, the industry may not have enough workers, argues NRA Chairman and Rubicon Enterprises CEO Dick Rivera. The former T.G.I. Friday’s CEO and Red Lobster president, who appeared on Chain Leader’s January 2001 cover, says a pathway to legal status for undocumented people may help solve the industry’s labor shortage. He shared his opinions in an interview at the NRA’s Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show in May.

Let me ask you a tough question on immigration reform. And I might as well just ask you point blank. In Atlanta there are a lot of Mexican-Americans, a lot of undocumented workers. Do you have any working at Marlow’s Tavern [one of Rubicon’s concepts]?

To our knowledge we don’t. We are actually pretty thorough going on the whole I-9 process and checking documentation. It could be that we have people who have fake documentation. I’m not sure we’d have a way of knowing that.

Do you support a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens who are law abiding and employed?

Absolutely. I do personally, and the NRA does. Look, here’s the thing. We have an industry where the job demand is growing at twice the rate than it is in the rest of the country. In other words, we’re creating jobs that much faster. And the age group that we primarily draw from is going to be flat in terms of growth over the next 10 years. And so do we need the workers? Absolutely.

So our whole notion is, we ought to have guest worker permits, give them IDs—we should be able track them from a security perspective, so that’s not an issue. Let’s give them the guest worker permits and allow them to work, and let’s provide a pathway to citizenship.

Of all the developed countries, we are the only one that has a birth rate above sustaining our population. Everyone else is in a declining state—Germany, England, France, you name it. Why is that? Because we have immigration, and the immigrant population is growing at a slightly faster rate, and it enables us to continue our population growth.

That’s important for a couple of reasons. That’s the future workers of America. But even more than that, it brings an energy and a creativity and a drive that has always been associated with immigrant populations. And we need that if we’re going to maintain our economy and maintain our pre-eminent place in the world.

Of course, not everybody shares that opinion. How do you answer the AFL-CIO’s John Sweeney, who has said a pathway would give employers a labor pool, I quote, "To exploit and drive down wages, benefits, health and safety protections…"

Well, I would just cite some examples. Three out of four foodservice managers, when they entered the industry, began at the starting wage. The average foodservice manager today makes a little more than $45,000 a year, which puts them in the top half of all household incomes in the country. So I would say, these are not dead-end jobs, they’re starting jobs. Most people who come in our industry, it’s their first job; they’re learning about standards, quality, teamwork, discipline—who’s teaching them is the employer. They’re starting jobs. If they want a career, they could have it, and when they do, they make good money. That’s what I would say.